Rescued migrants on an Italian coastguard ship after their transfer from the Aquarius.
Photograph: Lauren King/AFP/Getty Images

Italy has summoned the French ambassador after Emmanuel Macron criticised what he called Italy’s “cynicism and irresponsibility” in turning away a migrant rescue ship with more than 600 people on board.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s new anti-migrant interior minister, blocked the Aquarius rescue ship carrying 629 people from docking in its ports at the weekend, prompting international outcry.

In a speech to parliament on Wednesday he demanded an apology from the French president and challenged France to take in the migrants it had promised to take under an EU agreement, accusing it of turning back 10,000 migrants at Italy’s northern border.

Salvini said France had committed to accepting 9,816 migrants under a 2015 EU redistribution scheme to relieve frontline countries of the pressure of asylum-seekers. The scheme never got off the ground.

Salvini said in three years France had accepted only 640 people. “So I ask President Macron to pass from words to action and tomorrow morning welcome the 9,816 France promised to welcome as a sign of concrete generosity and not just words.”

Giuseppe Conte, the new Italian prime minister, also hit back at France’s criticism, calling its approach to the migrant crisis “hypocritical”.

“Following the statements made in Paris yesterday about the Aquarius case, the minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Enzo Moavero Milanese, has summoned the ambassador of France to Italy this morning,” the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The summons came as the migrants, who were pulled from the sea in rescue operations on Saturday night, make their way to Spain on Italian naval vessels, after Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, stepped in on Monday and said they would be welcome in the port of Valencia.

The Aquarius, which had been on its way to Sicily, got caught in a standoff between Italy and Malta after both countries refused to allow it to dock. It was the first major anti-migrant move made by Salvini, the hardline leader of the far-right League party. A week earlier he called for an end to Sicily being Europe’s “refugee camp”.

More than 600,000 migrants have landed on Italy’s southern shores over the last five years and the country has long urged its EU partners to share the burden.

A controversial pact between Italy and Libya has led to a 70% decrease in arrivals since last summer. But the deal is facing a legal challenge at the European court of human rights (ECHR) amid allegations that it prompted serious human rights violations, including torture and slavery, against those who make the treacherous Mediterranean crossing.

Many who arrive in Italy venture north in an attempt to cross into France, Austria or Switzerland. But border controls make this nearly impossible.

A cat-and-mouse situation has played out between Italy and France at the Italian border town of Ventimiglia since 2011, with French police sending back thousands who have tried to cross the border, either by train or a dangerous mountain path.

A report in the French newspaper Le Monde last week said a hunter had discovered the body of a migrant who attempted the mountain route over the winter.

The global medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has also criticised the Italian government’s response, accusing it of risking people’s safety and putting politics before lives.

Aloys Vimard, MSF’s project coordinator on board the Aquarius, said the Italian coastguard had dropped 900 migrants off in Sicily on Wednesday morning, while those on the NGO rescue ship had been turned away from Italian ports.

“This should not be a precedent: rescued people should be taken to the nearest available port,” he told the Guardian. “More than 900 people are disembarking in Catania, Sicily, and we’re a bit concerned that Italy has been toying with the lives of 629 rescued people by denying them disembarkation at the closest safe port. There’s a need for politicians to discuss this and for the European Union to find a dignified solution for these vulnerable people.

“We are very, very concerned about the situation because political considerations are being prioritised over the safety over hundreds of vulnerable people.”

Vimard said the situation on the Aquarius had improved significantly after more than 500 people were transferred to Italian vessels on Tuesday afternoon, leaving 106 people on the rescue ship.

“The conditions very difficult when there were 629 people on board; they couldn’t lie down and the ship was overcrowded for four days,” he said.

Vimard said the crew and passengers were hoping to reach Valencia on Saturday evening, though much would depend on the weather.

“The weather is deteriorating and we’re making sure that people are safe – we’ve put ropes across the deck so people can move to the toilet without falling over. It’s going to be tough.”